Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 29th December.

We meet in the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last Saturday the weather turned out much better than expected and I was especially glad about that as I had to do a bird count on the northern part of Texada Island that day.  I understand the Trekkers hiked not far from Gillies Bay visiting Cox Lagoon and Sandbanks along the way. 

 

My photo this week is one I took on a hike in the fall this year when we had quite a large group of hikers, near perfect weather and we did the circular hike that passes the so-called Matterhorn Peak and the summit of Mt. Grant.  From one of several viewpoints on this trail you can look through a gap in the trees eastward across Malaspina Strait and the south-western shoreline of Nelson Island with the rugged peaks of the Coast Mountains in the background.  

JD.

A glimpse from Mt. Grant of Nelson Island and the Coast Mountains on a very clear day in late October this year.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 22nd December.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week the hikers tell me they had a great hike in good weather and revisited the Kirk Lake Bluffs trails.  The photo this week is on the narrow trail that runs along the base of the massive cliffs on the south side of Kirk Lake Bluffs. Above the top of the photo is a natural rock formation that looks all the world like one of the statues of heads that are such a unique feature of Easter Island in the South Pacific.  

JD. 

Texada Trekkers website — the archives go back to 2009 and have photos that will enlarge when you click on them.

http://texadatrekkers.blogspot.com

Happy hikers at Kirk Lake Bluffs.

Next Hike from Van Anda.

The next hike is on Saturday, 15th December.

We meet at the Canadian Legion parking in Van Anda at 10:00am.

The hike last week was along the forest trail to Cape Sheaf Lake where a few of our rare Western Painted Turtle seem to do quite well a good distance away from any human activity that might affect their survival.  At this time of year the adults are safely hibernating at the bottom of the lake while the tiny hatchlings will not dig out of their nest holes until the warm days next summer. 

This cloudy and rainy weather we have been having the last few weeks sometimes clears up enough to let the sun shine for a little while.  My photo this week captures one end of a rainbow in the moments when the sun is shining through the last of the rain drops as a shower passes by.

JD.

  

The sun came out again and a rainbow appeared as a shower crossed Gillies Bay.

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 8th December.

We meet at the Ball Park in Gillies Bay at 10:00am

Last week I was not able to be on the hike, but I understand it was a visit to this wonderful and quite rugged area on the west coast of Texada that lies between Cook Bay and the boundary of the South Texada Provincial Park.  It's only in the last couple of years that we have begun to explore there and we have come to realize just how rewarding it is to seek out new trail routes through the areas of forest and open grassy bluffs and down to the shoreline.  

Micheline Macauley took the photo for this week on a group hike to this area last weekend.  You can see below the tree on the left just how steep this terrain can be, but the effort involved is well rewarded.

JD.

 

A lovely view of Lasqueti Island looking across the Sabine Channel from a bluff south-east of Cook Bay. The tree on the left is a Maritime Juniper.